


kisses and butterflies

by guardianangxl



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Archie Andrews, Fluff, M/M, Riverdale, Spoilers, riverdale spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 23:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10887540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guardianangxl/pseuds/guardianangxl
Summary: (this is POST EPISODE TWELVE. THERE ARE SPOILERS.)Jughead gets into his temporary home a bit later than he would've liked. Archie is concerned about Jughead and talks to him.Archie was facing him with wide eyes. "Jug?" The boy said in a groggy voice. He blinked and squinted, as if he was trying to see if it was just the darkness playing tricks on his eyes."Hey." Jughead responded. He could tell Archie wasn't totally conscious and would most likely be asleep in a matter of minutes, so he turned back to the computer and continued typing.





	kisses and butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS. THIS IS WRITTEN POST EPISODE 12.
> 
> Okay, this is the first time i've written on this website.
> 
> AAAA i'm so excited to be writing again. 
> 
> This is for my (best) friend Jada! Sorry for crying into your blanket over Kevin and Joaquin when we were watching episode twelve together. LOVE YOU. YOU INSPIRED ME TO WRITE AGAIN, SO THANKS FOR THAT TOO.
> 
> Kudos are appreciated!! Thank you for reading!!

Jughead sighed quietly as he clambered his way through Archie's window. He squeezed through the tiny opening and soon was standing in Archie's room. Fortunately, he knew how to get in the room quietly without making any noise whatsoever. He didn't want to wake Mr. Andrews by entering from the front door, so what better way could he have come into his temporary home?

He sat his bag down against the blue wall and dug out his computer. He glanced over at Archie's clock on his nightstand that was flashing the time. It was currently one thirty two in the morning. His gaze travelled from Archie's nightstand to the lump of covers in his bed. Archie was already asleep. His red curls were scattered across his pillow and he was facing away from Jughead.  
_Thank god,_ Jughead thought. If Archie was turned away, that gave Jughead a better chance of him not being seen. He slipped his shoes off and sat on the mattress he had been sleeping on for the past few weeks. The springs under him creaked quite loudly and Jughead let out a quiet groan of annoyance. 

He picked his computer up off of the ground from where he set it before. He opened it up as a bright login screen greeted him. He typed his password in carefully, making sure not to mess it up and get himself locked out. Once the computer booted up and logged him in, he opened the file to his manuscript about the mysterious death of Jason Blossom. The death occurred over the summer on July 11th. He was finally at the editing stage of the writing process. The entire town had recently found out who the murderer was: _Jason's own father._ The man shot his own son in between the eyes. No one had expected it. Most had expected it to be a criminal, like Jughead's dad, FP Jones. Jughead thought of how he went to the jailhouse to visit his dad. 

_"You really had me." Jughead sighed. He held back tears as he stared at his dad from the other side of the bars. He licked his lips and blinked away tears. He took in a sharp breath and looked at the man he was ashamed to call his father._

_"Cleaning the trailer." He continued. "Convincing me that you would quit drinking." Jughead looked away as his voice cracked. He sighed again and looked back at his dad. He bit his lip and looked up._

_"I was so happy, for the first time in so long." He choked out and looked back at his dad. He was disappointed in the man sitting in the jail cell._

Jughead's breath hitched as he looked down at the mattress he was sitting on. He thought about his dad. His dad had confessed to something he didn't do to protect him. He decided to stop thinking about it before he would burst. He turned back to his manuscript. 

He sighed and read through the whole thing twice before making small changes, such as grammar errors he had missed earlier and adding details. He was in the middle of typing a sentence when he heard sheets rustling beside him. He froze and stopped typing, looking up at Archie's bed. 

Archie was facing him with wide eyes. "Jug?" The boy said in a groggy voice. He blinked and squinted, as if he was trying to see if it was just the darkness playing tricks on his eyes. 

"Hey." Jughead responded. He could tell Archie wasn't totally conscious and would most likely be asleep in a matter of minutes, so he turned back to the computer and continued typing. 

Archie blinked a couple of times before speaking up again. "When did you get back?" 

"Couple of minutes ago." Jughead said with a monotonous voice. He usually talked like this when focused on something else.

Archie stared at the boy. "Oh." He laid his head down. "Where were you before you got here?" The redhead yawned, blinking tiredly and staring at his best friend's back. 

"Pop's."

"Oh." Archie repeated. He knew something was up but didn't pry the boy for answers. Instead, he tried to sneak questions into their conversation.  
"So, how are you and Betty doing?" He asked, attempting to sound casual. 

It did not sound casual at all. 

Jughead stiffened a little as the boy finally turned to face Archie. Archie immediately took note of Jughead's dark bags under his eyes and knew he should probably turn his alarm off for in the morning so he could let Jughead sleep in. He decided to keep that thought in the back of his mind for later. 

"She didn't tell you? All you guys ever do is talk." Jughead said bitterly. It was pretty obvious he was uncomfortable talking about Betty. 

"No, she didn't say anything. What happened?" Archie asked softly. 

"We broke it off." Jughead said simply. 

"Juggy..." Archie said, sitting up a bit and reaching out for him. 

"Don't bother." The boy let out a dry laugh and dismissed Archie's hand. "I made it just fine without her, I can still do that. I didn't depend on her for everything, you know." He said and looked up at Archie with an unreadable expression. 

But Archie could read him like a book. He'd known him for most of his life. "Why?" He asked quietly. 

Jughead looked down at his computer. "We just broke up, Archie. It's not that big of a deal." He said. "She said something about me not being safe with her. Honestly, I would have probably ended up dragging her into my problems. It's probably for the better. I didn't say much." He explained. 

Archie nodded. He continued thinking about how it could've possibly gone down, but could tell Jughead was uncomfortable talking about it. He changed the subject, but it still lingered in the back of his mind. "This is the fourth time this week you've shown up around this time." He pointed out. 

"Okay?" Jughead looked at him. 

"What are you doing at Pop's at one in the morning?" Archie prodded. He had to at least get some answers from him. 

"You tell me." Jughead said, his focus going back to the computer in his lap. 

Archie huffed. He had basically given up on trying to get answers at this point. He looked at the boy one last time before speaking. "You can talk to me, Jug. I'm here for you, I always will be." 

Jughead scoffed. "Oh, you're here for me? Like you were here for me when everything started falling apart? Okay. Yeah." He said and turned away from him. 

"What?" Archie asked. 

"You're never there for me, Archie. At least not anymore." He kept his gaze on the computer. He typed and paused to look up at Archie. "Fourth of July. Our road trip. Do you remember that?" Jughead said bitterly. "I was finally going to open up to someone about my family."

Archie blinked. "Jug... I'm sorry." 

"Didn't seem too sorry when you cancelled the trip to be with some cougar who was using you for your body." He spat out, slamming the computer shut and putting it into his bag. He stood up and pulled his hat down farther over his head. "I was going to talk about things that I would've only told you, Archie. I was going to tell you how my own mother turned me down because she thought i would turn out just like my dad." He shook his head and laughed. 

Jughead turned around, his back to Archie. He felt tears build up. "You were my only friend. I thought i could tell you anything. Jesus, that road trip was when i was going to tell you how i felt about you." He paused and let that sink in. 

"About how i was in love with you." He said angrily, biting his tongue to keep back tears. 

Archie blinked and stared at his friend in disbelief. 

"That trip was special to me, Archie." He sighed. "I was at such a low point. I depended on you. You were the only person i trusted." Jughead looked at him with a bitter taste in his mouth. He decided against saying anything else before he started crying. He turned to the window and was about to open it back up. 

Archie stood up as Jughead started heading towards the window. He grabbed his arm quickly and pulled him back. "What do you mean?" The only thing that Archie was thinking about was Jughead being in love with him. Archie had betrayed his best friend to see a woman who was using him. He felt horrible. He stared at Jughead sadly. 

Jughead jerked out of his grip. "Guess it doesn't matter anymore, does it?" He looked up at Archie. His eyes were glazed over and tears were welling up in his eyes. "I'm going back to Pop's." He grumbled and turned back to the window. 

Archie grabbed Jughead's arm again and pulled the boy towards him. He was holding onto his arm with one hand and the other hand glided up to his face. He cupped Jughead's face and brought him into a kiss. Archie took note of how chapped Jughead's lips were. He melted into the kiss, though the other boy wasn't kissing back. 

Jughead wasn't very surprised by the sudden action. It was just like Archie to do that. 

Archie pulled back after a minute and stared down at Jughead. He smiled slightly. He wanted to do it again. His lips tingled.

Jughead, though, felt differently about the situation. "Kissing me won't make my problems disappear, Archie." The boy proceeded to climb out of the window and scoot down the roof. He jumped off and landed on the ground with a thump. He ended up leaving the other boy standing in his bedroom, wondering what had just happened between the two. Archie looked out the window as he thought about everything that had just happened. "Wait, what just...?" He whispered under his breath. 

 

\+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +  
(a few months later)

Archie strummed his acoustic amber-tone Martin. He smiled at his best friend, Jughead, who was sitting on the old couch reading a book. Three months had passed since Archie kissed his best friend in his bedroom. Archie had actually made another move on him a month ago.

_Archie smiled. He was sitting in a large auditorium in front of a crowd of people. He had just hit the last chord of his new original song that Jughead and him had written together. There was silence when Archie hit the last chord of the song. Archie glanced around nervously at the crowd as they erupted into cheers and claps. Archie beamed and stood up, mumbling a 'thank you' into the mic. He ran off stage and slung his guitar over his back._

_He went backstage where Jughead stood waiting for him. Jughead smiled and crossed his arms. Archie marched up to him and moved his hands up to Jughead's face and cupped his jaw with both hands. Archie kissed him and squeezed his eyes shut. Jughead showed a slight sign of contentment with the kiss this time. He started to kiss back slowly before Archie pulled away. "Thank you for helping me with the song." He said breathlessly._

_Jughead smiled and nodded. "No problem. Anytime." He mumbled. He smirked as he looked up and his cheeks grew a rosy colour. "You did amazing, Arch." He said._

_Betty, Veronica, and Kevin approached the two boys.  
"At first i thought you would sound like absolute shit, but i stand corrected." Kevin chuckled. He looked between the two and raised his eyebrow. _

_Veronica chuckled. "That was really good, Archie."_

_Betty nodded after Veronica complimented the boy. "You were amazing."_

_Archie looked over at Jughead and smiled. "Thanks."_

When Archie tried to say something about their moment, Jughead acted like it didn't mean anything. He soon gave up on it, but knew the feelings were still there. He pushed his feelings away the best he could, as he was with Veronica.

Jughead looked up at Archie and raised his eyebrow. Archie looked down at his guitar and strummed a few chords. He glanced back up at Jughead and noticed Jughead's signature whoopee hat was on the other side of the couch. 

Jughead smiled back awkwardly, "Why are you smiling at me like that?" He asked. 

He had noticed Archie looking at him while playing his guitar. Jughead's cheeks would go pink and stop reading his book to look up at Archie. When he did, Archie would look back at his guitar quickly and avoid eye contact. 

Archie stared at him this time. "I'm just thinking about stuff." 

Jughead raised his eyebrow and smiled. "You and Veronica?"

Archie laughed and shook his head. He didn't say anything else and continued playing his guitar. He tried to put his fingers in a chord, but it ended up sounding sour. Archie's face scrunched in disgust. Jughead chuckled and stood up, getting an extra lab stool from the corner of the room and rolling towards Archie. 

"Give it. Let me show you something." He grabbed the guitar as Archie took the strap off. Jughead flipped the guitar over and slung the strap over his shoulder. He looked down and placed his hands on the frets and started strumming. 

Archie was staring at the boy. He admired how focused Jughead's face was. They were awfully close, the only thing truly dividing them was the guitar. He looked down at Jughead's fingers and how he kept changing chords almost flawlessly. Archie looked back up at Jughead. He look at his raven-coloured hair and was tempted to run his fingers through it. He watched Jughead's lips and looked at the moles scattered on his face. The boy was beautiful. 

Jughead stopped playing. "So, you see how i'm moving this finger up to the third fret? Play in that pattern and it should be easier for you." He said quietly and looked up at Archie. They caught eachother's gaze. They let the atmosphere of the room sink in. 

Jughead was the one to move forward this time. He cupped Archie's cheek and pulled him forward. Jughead kissed him slowly, tilting his head at an angle. Archie's eyes fluttered closed and he ran his fingers through Jughead's hair like he wanted to previously. 

Jughead pulled back and looked at Archie. He panted, trying to get more air. "Veronica?" He raised an eyebrow at Archie. 

Archie smirked and rolled his eyes. "Really? That's what you were thinking about in the middle of our moment?" He chuckled. He looked at Jughead. He sighed and his smile fell into a small frown. "I don't know what i'm going to do." He said in a serious tone. "I like Veronica, but I've known you longer. I know you better." 

Archie smiled weakly. "I'll figure it out."

Jughead nodded and put his finger on Archie's chin. He brought him into another kiss. He smiled and backed away from him. "Okay." He mumbled.


End file.
